OVER THE MOUNTAIN Journal
Rising Runway Stars
Thursday, March 8, 2012 • 31
Schools
Pizitz Arts Students Show off Designs at Birmingham Fashion Week
A
rt students at Pizitz Middle School recently participated in the Rising Design Star competition during Birmingham Fashion Week. Pizitz placed 10 artist/designers in the contest semifinals among 40 middle and high school students. Participants had to create a dress from unusual dress materials; no fabric or sewn material was allowed. Some of their clever creations included twisted computer wire, chewing gum sticks in wrappers, comic strips, feathers, plastic bags, curled ribbon and soda can pull tabs. Semifinalists were design star
Great Chen with model Wendy Jiang, Odelia Huang with Mary Claire Hubert, Greer Miceli with Lucy Bailey, Grace Promer with Margaret Koopman from Vestavia Hills High School and Erica Wei with Taylor Davis. The five artists from Pizitz who made it to the finals were design star Madeline Borden with model Alex Ferguson, Ella Kate Dewees with Mary Umbar, Sarah Gann with Savannah Flowers, Taylor McGill with Anna Catherine Manning from Oak Mountain High School and Sarah Anne Pfitzer with Michelle Perley from Vestavia Hills High School. ❖
Above: Pizitiz Middle School art students at Birmingham Fashion Week included, from left: Greer Miceli, Lucy Bailey, Sarah Anne Pfitzer, Michelle Perley,Grace Promer and Margaret Hooper. Right: Savannah Flowers shows off Sarah Gann’s gum stick dress at the Rising Design Star contest, held durPhoto special to the Journal ing Birmingham Fashion Week.
School Notes to purchase a professional grade camera. Other recent additions include a broadcast room, built as part of a library renovation, and new editing software.
Homewood High School Students Named Merit Scholar Finalists Legislators, Mountain Brook School Superintendent Dicky Barlow and principals met at the 2011 Mountain Brook Schools Legislative Roundtable. Participants included, from left: Rep. Jack Williams, principal Vic Wilson, PTO chairman Crawford Bumgarner, Barlow, principal Ben Hudson, Sen. Slade Blackwell, Rep. Paul DeMarco, Sen. Jabo Waggoner and Rep. Jim Carns. Photo special to the Journal
Mt. Brook Schools Host Roundtable Mountain Brook City Schools hosted the annual Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills Schools Legislative Roundtable in the fall at the Mountain Brook Board of Education Charles Mason Building in Crestline Village. All Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills state senators and representatives attended. Co-chairmen for the event were Crawford Bumgarner from Mountain Brook Schools PTO and Kelli Eshleman from Vestavia Hills Schools PTO. The forum was open to the public, and many community members and parents attended.
from the school and community, an introduction that enabled the school to pray together, the Pledge of Allegiance and special segments that encouraged students to meet the school’s goals for religious and academic growth. Since then, students have created new segments, such as “Cooking Corner,” “Safety Dude” and “Paco the Talking Lizard.” The program got a boost last year when Gonzalez received a $1,000 grant from CBS 42’s “One Class at a Time.” The grant enabled the school
Four Homewood High School students recently were named finalists in the prestigious National Merit Scholarship program. The Homewood High seniors attaining this distinction were: Carly Galbraith, Julia Kendrick, Emily McDuff and Caleb Weaver. The pre-SAT, taken their junior year, served as the initial screening of more than 1.5 million entrants to the 2012 National Merit Program. The finalists were selected among 16,000 semifinalists who had the highest scorers in each state and represent less than 1 percent of each state’s high school seniors. There were 214 Semifinalists in Alabama. Homewood High’s Lin Kabachia and Smita Speer were chosen
as two of the Alabama public school students named as a finalist in the 48th annual National Achievement Scholarship Program for scholastically talented black American high school seniors. They were selected among 1,600 semifinalists and are eligible to compete for approximately 800 scholarships worth more than $2.4 million. To advance to the National Merit or National Achievement finalist level of the competition, semifinalists had to submit a
substantial amount of information and fulfill additional requirements. Each finalist must present an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a school official and earn an SAT score that confirmed the qualifying test performance. The students also had to provide an essay describing activities, interests, and goals. Homewood High School also had four students named National Merit Commended. They were Charlotte Gilliland, Chris Schiller, Smita Speer and Dylan Westfall. ❖
Highlands Students Make a Run for it
Seventy-five Highlands School students in kindergarten through fifth grade braved the cold Feb. 11 to compete in the Mercedes Marathon. Among participants were, from left: Connor Doggrell, Julie Marwan, Whitney Byington, Katherine Effinger, Andrew Glassford and Andy Schwebel. Photo special to the Journal
St. Francis Forms Broadcast Team St. Francis Xavier technology teacher Elizabeth Gonzalez began efforts last year to bring a top-quality broadcast team to the school, and since then the broadcasting team is keeping students informed with its daily morning news show. Gonzalez began with a basic “flip cam” and the support of families committed to having students at school no later than 7:40 p.m. each day. The goal was to have five 10-minute edited broadcasts every Friday for each class to watch. The first show featured news segments with items of interest
Indian Springs School Job Opening Assistant Director of Development
Members of the St. Francis Xavier broadcasting team are from left; Katie Clanton, Jackson Clark, Caroline Grady, Hannah Barber, Jordan Perez, Olivia Eubanks, Mitchell Smalenski, Andrew Ramey and Elizabeth Gonzalez. Photo special to the Journal
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